Identification system for a surgical cassette

Abstract

A cassette having, in a first embodiment, a series of break-off, prismatic tabs integrally formed in the cassette that can be optically sensed by the surgical instrument.

We claim: 
     
       1. A surgical cassette identification system for a surgical system having a set of surgical cassettes, each member of the set having a distinct row of prismatic tabs, a peristaltic pump, an array of light emitting diodes being pulsed on and off sequentially by electric circuitry to emit light and a corresponding array of phototransistors for sensing light being reflected by the tabs when the tabs are illuminated by the light emitting diode array, a computer being capable of controlling external electronic circuitry in the form of electronic output commands and accepting input from external electronic circuitry, the light emitting diodes array being connected to and controlled by the computer, the phototransistor array being connected and inputing its output to the computer, the computer being capable of identifying patterns of input signals from the phototransistor array, the input signal patterns being indicative of the light emitting diode light being reflected from the individual tabs in the prismatic tab rows, the computer further being capable of an indication that is associated with one of the input signal patterns, the improvement consisting of: a) each of the tabs being easily and selectably breakable manually to form patterns of tabs and voids; and   b) each of the patterns of tabs and voids being indicative of one distinct cassette within the set of surgical cassettes.